I believe the images that include me as a subject were duplicate slides provided by the Hansen’s.
This was a trip I was invited on by my high school friend, Martin Hansen. Along with another friend, Bruce Edwards, we were accompanying Martin, his father John, Martin’s sister Theresa and two of Theresa’s friends (names not remembered) on a 59-mile hike from Hannegan Pass
Trailhead to the community of Diablo at the base of the Diablo dam on the Skagit River. I don’t remember the precise dates of the trip but based on when my slides were processed (August 1971), I’d say late July or early August. We did have a few snow-covered sections and significant water running in the streams, so it wasn’t late in the season.
Also, I don’t remember how we got to/from the trailheads. My guess is that we might have all piled into one or both Hansen’s Chevy Suburbans and that either Martin’s brother Tom or mother did the driving for the vehicle shuttle. While I know the route we hiked, I am less sure of the campsites we used. Nevertheless, I’ve made some educated guesses.
Some of the things I do remember were: 1) I had a great time; 2) it was beautiful country; 3) the trip was well planned and executed; 4) I don’t remember any bad feelings or tensions in the group. I do remember that the “guys” (Martin, Bruce & I) thought we should receive slightly larger meal portions (the food was communal) than the “girls” (Theresa and her two friends), seeing as how we were carrying more of the group gear than they were.
From trailhead for Hannegan Pass, the route goes first to Hannegan Pass (~4-1/4 miles) then a mile further to the trail junction with the Copper Ridge trail. The trail bounces along Copper Ridge for about 6 miles before dropping into the Copper Lake cirque. This was our first (?) camp, a very long day.
The route continued for several more miles along the ridge before beginning a long drop to the Chilliwack River. A hand line, using the 120’ of nylon Goldline the group carried (well, mostly Martin, Bruce & I), was put across a steep snow slope that the trail crossed, and steps were cut for safety. At the valley bottom, the Goldline was pulled out again to help in crossing the Chilliwack. We made camp somewhere along the Chilliwack.
From here, the route headed back up to Whatcom Pass which is reached at about mile 26 in the journey. There are views looking up towards Whatcom Peak along the trail. At our Whatcom Pass camp, Mt Challenger is the obvious peak that catches your eye. The Challenger Glacier sweeps across the northern flank of the peak. The rocky cap at the summit stands barely two hundred feet above the upper edges of the glacier.
We now descended the Little Beaver Creek Trail for six miles before ascending 1200’ in two miles to Beaver Pass and entering the Big Beaver Creek drainage. I believe we had a campsite either at the pass or perhaps a bit further down at Luna camp. After about 13 miles of steady downhill, we arrived at Ross Lake and the Big Beaver Camp. With it is the opportunity to swim and clean up in something warmer than a snow melt filled stream.
We closed out our trip with a very long day of hiking from the Big Beaver Camp along the Ross Dam Trail to Ross Dam. We cross Ross Dam, walk the road to the bottom of the dam, then hike the Diablo Dam Trail to the community of Diablo (a Seattle City Light “company” town) at the base of the Diablo Dam.
We finished up our trip down the road in Newhalem (another SCL company town) with a fried chicken dinner that was served to those folks doing the Skagit Tours operated by Seattle City Light at the time. While we hadn’t done the tour, Martin’s father who worked for SCL arranged for us to buy just the dinner.
